Volker remains on top as Groskamp edges closer
Expected to be a faster round due the lowering temperature and increasing grip, that prediction did not materialise and conditions remained unchanged with round topper Ronald Volker’s time marginally slower than what he produced in Q1. JJ Wang remains second overnight despite crashing his car later in the heat, the LRP driver pulling up despite not damaging his car. Jilles Groskamp was the only driver in the top 3 to improve, moving to within 1.2 seconds of Wang’s Q1 time, while Jan Rathiesky’s overhauled Xray T4 was vastly improved and he leapt passed Rocket Zhang into the 5th position.
Describing the run as a ‘great close battle between the Top 3’ as they swapped fastest laps and exchanged the lead by the end of the run his pace has lowered which he attributes to easing off after JJ crashed at the end of the straight. Unsure about the weather conditions and therefore the track conditions for tomorrow’s 3rd and final qualifier he is not taking his top spot for granted, saying pole position is ‘still not safe’. Having made some small changes to the front of the car the results was more or less the same as before and tonight he, along with pit man Yukijiro Umino, will think about other setup options.
Sitting 2nd overall with his Q1 time, local ace JJ Wang would crash out of the heat while sitting in 2nd, hitting the inside board at the end of the straight which rolled the car. With times so tight and his first round time pretty solid, he decided to pull the car up. ‘Happy the pace is there’ he described the car as really good and believing that conditions won’t be any quicker in the morning, will just check over the car and use Q3 to bed in tires for the final.
A very happy Jilles Groskamp seems to be really enjoying his first race on carpet for some time, with the 2012 WC feeling his pace was very good compared to the two ahead of him who have been much more active racing touring car in the lead up to this race. Leading the heat and on TQ pace for a while, he said he got too excited and this caused some mistakes. Another racer to use Q3 to bed in tires for the finals, he said that he thinks Q3 is a good place to start for the final, not wanting to lead off the grid with the top 3 so closely matched.
Naoto continues to struggle to get his car to turn, the adjustment to the rear spring for that heat not seeming to make much of a difference. It wouldn’t have mattered as the Japanese driver put a wrong battery in his car and it ran out of power 3 minutes into the race. Not faring much better in 1/12th scale his motor came loose after hitting JJ Wang who had crashed ahead of him, but his TQ is all but certain as he is 3 laps quicker than 2nd place Italian Lorenzo Bali.
Another to improve, after completely changing his car, Jan Ratheisky, the busiest man at the track, sits in 5th spot with his much improved Q2 time. Feeling he lost a lot of time letting Ronald Volker through as he really didn’t want to mess up his race, the German will make more changes for the final round of qualifying. Continuing to dominate the other 3 classes he is running this weekend, including Formula, he will focus now more on modified and in terms of setup will ‘go for risky’. Looking for more on power steering he will change the rear springs, use less toe out on the front, give the car more rear droop and change to a stiffer rear diff.
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